Police: Shooter fleeing scene kills woman in crash

Chicago Tribune reporter Peter Nickeas discusses crimes from across the city that include eight people wounded in shootings. (Posted July 14, 2013)

Chicago Tribune reporter Peter Nickeas discusses crimes from across the city that include eight people wounded in shootings. (Posted July 14, 2013)

Peter NickeasTribune reporter

A man who shot someone in the East Garfield Park neighborhood fled the scene and caused a fatal crash a mile away, according to police.

Officers were pursuing his vehicle, wanted in connection with the 11:30 p.m. shooting in the 100 block of Springfield Avenue south of Madison Street, when it caused a four-car crash at the intersection of Pulaski Road and Chicago Avenue about a mile north.

The Cook County medical examiner's office identified the woman killed in the accident as Marisol Mercado, 35, of the 5700 block of W. Grand Avenue in Chicago.

Four others, including the man described by police as the "offender," sustained "non-life-threatening wounds," Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines said.

One of the two cars the shooter hit then crashed into a CTA bus, but the bus driver refused medical treatment, police said.

The driver of the vehicle that caused the crash is in police custody and was being treated at Stroger Hospital. The man he shot, 38, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with a leg wound and is expected to survive, police said. The other victims of the crash were taken to area hospitals, including two to Mount Sinai.

Investigators also picked up a gun from near the intersection of Pulaski Road and Kinzie Street they believe is tied to the shooting.